A clinic’s landlord turns the tables on anti-abortion protesters
Todd Stave is the landlord of a clinic in Germantown that provides abortions. Reproductive Health Services became the focus of antiabortion protesters when it was leased to LeRoy Carhart, one of the few doctors in the nation who acknowledges performing late-term abortions.
Todd is no stranger to clinic protests. His father owned the clinic and his sister managed it. He has been around protests since he was 5 years old. He doesn’t mind people protesting. He feels it is their first amendment right to protest there.
I’ve been a member of this fight since Roe v. Wade, since I was 5 years old,” he said. The office was firebombed when he was a kid, and protesters gathered outside the family home as he was growing up. So he’s no stranger to the harassment and bullying of doctors and their families.
It has become routine for protesters to distribute fliers and create Web sites that supply personal information about doctors and encourage others to badger them. Kansas doctor George Tiller was killed in 2009, and the farm of his protege, Carhart, was burned to the ground in 1991
Todd is used to bullying but they stepped over the line several months ago and showed up at his daughter’s school:
But his tormentors crossed the line last fall when a big group showed up at his daughter’s middle school on the first day of classes and again at back-to-school night. They had signs displaying his name and contact information as well as those gory images of the fetuses.
After that, his home was bombarded with thousands of phone calls, all hours of the day and night. Friends asked how they could help and the plan began. Those who called left a footprint and they received a polite call asking the following:
“In a very calm, very respectful voice, they said that the Stave family thanks you for your prayers,” he said. “They cannot terminate the lease, and they do not want to. They support women’s rights.”
This started with a dozen or so friends, and then it grew. Soon, more than a thousand volunteers were dialing.
If they could find the information, Stave’s supporters would ask during the callbacks how the children in the family were doing and mention their names and the names of their schools. “And then,” Stave said, “we’d tell them that we bless their home on such and such street,” giving the address.
The family of a protester who called Stave’s home could get up to 5,000 calls in return.
The script changed and got more detailed, but was always courteous.
Todd Stave and his family continue to be stalked. Reminder, he is the landlord. Trouble began again last week when he was out of town.
While he was in California, his neighborhood was canvassed with fliers depicting Stave in a Nazi uniform, with graphic photos of Holocaust victims and bloody fetuses. And it had all of his contact information as well as phone numbers and addresses for other family members.
“It wasn’t random,” he said. “They knew I’d be gone, and they wanted my daughter and neighbors to find them.”
On Monday, a protester showed up outside of his brother-in-law’s Rockville dental office to protest abortion where molars were being extracted.
The same nasty signs and the same harassment now are at a dentist’s office. This bullying and harassment is insane. Just insane. It cannot be legal. I fear for Todd Stave’s life. I fear for the life of his family. The people involved in this kind of stalking and harassment are mentally ill. At what point does the law step in and take corrective action?
Who is Dr. Carhart? Some background from December, 2010.
Protests at Maryland Abortion Clinic: MyFoxDC.com
“Late term abortion” is defined as any abortion performed after 20 weeks. Only 1% of all abortions in the United States are after 20 weeks. Maryland only allows for late term abortions in the case of fetal anomoly.
Isn’t having to terminate a pregnancy sad enough because of the abnormality without having to go through all these people?
So he feels harassed, and his solution is to harass his harassers. Wow, he’s so much more evolved than they are.
Your outrage is very selective. Where’s the outrage at the occupy demonstrations that people have to walk through to get to work? Where is the outrage at the Unions staging demonstrations in front of people’s houses if they happen to be bankers?(that was local, too!). So this guy is proud of his work slaughtering babies. Well, we’re all proud of him too…he’s very useful.
Petula Dvorak has an interesting column in today’s Metro section
“Turnabout is fair play in abortion wars”
where the owner, Todd Stave, of a building that rents space to a doctor who acknowledges performing late-term abortions, has found a way to get even rather than mad. Worth reading.
Ooops / Guess I’m a little late.
@Emma
Or he can just take it for another 30 years like he has done since he was 5 years old. I never took you for someone who would encourage someone else to roll over and play dead, Emma.
Sometimes people finally see the light when they have walked a mile in someone else’s shoes. Why don’t they go protest at the clinic instead of stalking a landlord?
More importantly, why aren’t there laws that protect Todd?
@pokie, Why thank you for assigning outrage to me. Yes, I am fairly selective.
Occupy Wall Street bores me. So do unions.
” Slaughtering babies”. So let me get this straight. You want to eliminate all prenatal testing? How about dentistry? Did you read the only exeption in Maryland was fetal abnormality? I believe you and I might feel differently about the use of abortion in this case. Regardless. It is a legal procedure in the case of fetal abnormality. I believe rule of law fits here. Furthermore, no one is forcing this choice on anyone else.
Did you even read the article? This guy is not an abortion provider. He is the landlord. Since you feel so strongly, would you approve of the ‘protesters’ just burning down the building? Gunning him down? Gunning down his wife and kids? Where does it end once you have stepped outside the law in the first place?
That’s ok, Punchak. Better to not overlook this one.
These are the people our local politicians are doing the bidding of.
Governor Ultra-Sound knew to stay away but he just couldn’t resist.
I believe Dr. Carhart also practices in Northern VA. He planned to.
@Moon-howler The revenge theme has been quite prominent this past week, hasn’t it? Show me where I said he needed to roll over and play dead.
Funny, I seem to remember someone posting “An eye for an eye makes both people blind” somewhere on these pages awhile back. Guess it depends on the pet issue of the week.
@Emma, I bet I didn’t post it. That doesn’t sound like something I would post.
So what do you propose Todd do when protesters show up at his daughter’s school the first day? I rather liked the idea of him calling them back. Is that revenge? I bet those phone calls are a lot more polite.
Furthermore, some of these callers get quite personal. Take the fake clinic locally. A number of years ago a friend of my daughter’s went in by mistake. She filled out all the paper work etc, thinking she was in the right place. She was told to come back the next day. That’s when the phone calls started about ‘don’t kill your baby’ and the hymn singing on the phone. NO, it isn’t illegal to do that, I am sorry to say.
Reproductive rights is always a pet issue. Count on it. You can set your clock by it.
If you are trying to shame me into changing my mind, and thinking this is acceptable behavior, save your keystrokes. If you are trying to goad me, I would go for another topic. I have had this as a pet project for a long long time.
“If you are trying to shame me into changing my mind, and thinking this is acceptable behavior, save your keystrokes. If you are trying to goad me, I would go for another topic. I have had this as a pet project for a long long time.”
Wrong, wrong, wrong. I’m not an evangelizer, and never will be. I just don’t think “eye for an eye” is a particularly productive way to go. Recruiting volunteers to call a person 5,000 times? How does that secure one’s “reproductive rights”?
@Emma
It might not be very productive but it did make me smile.
It might make someone think before they made crank calls. I don’t think he recruited as much as volunteers stepped forward. There are lots of volunteers out there. It is a fairly clean way to react to bullies. You can be polite and not get your hands dirty.
So what does a landlord do to keep from being bullied and harassed? I don’t know.
I am not a member of Voice for Choice.
Since when did it ever become acceptable to use use harrassment tactics? Oh, I guess, if you are “protecting the unborn” any behavior is condoned. Yes, that is why clinics bet bombed and doctors are murdered.
It really is alright to acknowldege when behavior is simply bad, no matter who does it. Are these people suppose to do nothing to protect themselves?
Emma, if you and your family were being harrassed night and day, what would you do?
You know Slowpoke, “there but for the grace of G-d go I”. I have heard a second hand story of a couple faced with terminating a pregnancy late term. It was horrible for them, it was one of the saddest stories I have heard about the loss of a child.
You know what stood out when the sister of this couple (religious anti abortiona catholic)? How they were so appreciative of the kindness displayed to them from the people who worked at this clinic. So you know what, I suggest you take your judegment butt a few steps back.
I’ve known two different couples who in the early second trimester found out they were pregnant with a baby with a severe trisomy defect. In both instances, the babies were very much wanted and the news of the defect was heartbreaking to say the least. Both women had the option of carrying to term, and delivering a baby that would either be stillborn, or die very soon after birth. Yet, there was no guarantee that either baby would make it to term either. Most likely both would die inutero at some point. One woman chose a second trimester abortion, the other chose to try to carry the baby to term and deliver a child she knew would be stillborn. BOTH situations were difficult, yet each chose a path they were best able to deal with, and I cannot and will not ever judge either of their decisions. Each person must make the decision based upon what they know they can handle. Every situation and person is different. Either way the outcome was the same…two women lost a child they very much wanted.
Thank you for sharing this. I have known 2 people who thought they might have to make the decision. In each case, it wasn’t necessary. However, both women agonized.
It really isn’t anyone else’s business.
“It really isn’t anyone else’s business.”
Then why bother posting a thread on the topic if the subject is closed?
@Elena “Since when did it ever become acceptable to use use harrassment tactics?”
I never said it was acceptable. But apparently Todd Stave thinks it is.